Up to 19,000 French websites have been hacked since the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo office on January 7, the country's head of cyber-defence has confirmed.

Rear Admiral Arnaud Coustilliere has said the scope and severity of the attacks is 'unprecedented'.

According to CNN Money, the French Defense Ministry and ANSSI - its version of America's National Security Agency - said they have been monitoring waves of cyber-attacks on all kinds of websites.

The websites of French businesses, religious groups, universities and municipalities were altered to display pro-Islamist messages.

Hacked: The website of the French town of Ezanville was replaced with this black Isis flag, and a message reading: 'Death to France'

Widespread: France's head of cyber-defence, Rear Admiral Arnaud Coustilliere (pictured), confirmed the scope of the attacks was 'unprecedented'

Ezanville was one of the thousands of towns whose website's home page was replaced with a black ISIS flag, and the message: 'The Islamic State Stay Inchallah. Free Palestine. Death To France. Death To Charlie.'

The allegedly Anti-Semitic message refers to the satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, who have recently printed a 'survivors' edition after eight of their journalists were murdered in a terrorist attack on January 7.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has since claimed responsibility for the attack on its office - as well as another hostage situation in the city, in which four people were killed by Amedy Coulibaly.

Their latest magazine cover features a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, which has prompted further fear of retaliation against both the publication and France itself.

RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

Share

Coustilliere said the French Defense Ministry's website also became temporarily inaccessible after it was 'bombarded' with fake internet traffic - but described the attacks as nothing more than an 'annoyance'.

He said: 'These attacks have no effect on the conduct of our operations.'

While Guillaume Poupard, the general director of ANSSI, says the websites with 'little computer security' were being targetted by vandals, adding: 'It's not a very complex attack. They're looking for weak targets.'

These French websites are not the only ones to face cyber-threats in recent weeks.

Cyber-threat: The Twitter account of the US military's Central Command (pictured) appeared to be hacked by ISIS sympathisers, who posted threatening messages against troops and the home addresses of 4-star generals.

Hacker: US and European governments strongly believed US Central Command's Twitter account was hacked by Junaid Hussain (pictured), 20, who they say was once jailed for hacking the personal address book of former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair

On Monday, the social media accounts of the US military's Central Command appeared to be hacked by ISIS sympathisers - who posted threatening messages against troops and the home addresses of 4-star generals.

Sources from US and European governments strongly believed the 'CyberCaliphate' hacking was carried out by Junaid Hussain, 20, who they say was once jailed for hacking the personal address book of former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

He replaced the cover photo of their Twitter account with a photograph of a masked ISIS soldier and the message, 'i love you isis'.

Ominous tweets reading 'American soldiers, we are coming, watch your back' and 'We won't stop! We know everything about you, your wives and children' were posted from the account.